Do you ever find yourself wanting to complete a project or start a new one but can’t seem to make it happen? We all face these circumstances once and while, and there is one key factor that can help you overcome the inability to get started. That is short term goal setting.

By nature of it’s title short term goal setting is just that, goals set to be achieved in the near future. The near future for some may be one day to one month, there is no hard an fast rule about what is deemed to be short term. You need to feel comfortable about the time line you choose for completion of a goal.

Characteristics of a Short Term Goal

As with any goal you set you need to ensure a certain amount of exactness in your short term goal setting. Ambiguous goals rarely get achieved because they don’t have a finite outcome. Being specific about what it is you want to achieve allows you to set time lines for achievement, and break the goal down into smaller steps if required.

Once you have decided on a specific goal you need to set a time for achievement. This is where the short term aspect comes into play. We’re not really talking about a short term goal if it’s a year or two away. For short term goal setting we want to focus on things you can achieve in a shorter period of time. A good example is saving money towards a purchase or vacation. Generally you have anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months to set aside the money needed to possibly purchase something new or take that dream golf vacation.

While this isn’t a must with all short term goal setting some goals should be broken into smaller more manageable steps. Again this is dictated by how in depth the goal is. If you set a goal to bring coffee to work every day for two months, and not buy it at the local coffee shop that’s pretty much the one and only step there is. You could break it down into, buying ground coffee with your next grocery order, ensuring you have a thermal mug, but really that’s overboard. How ever if we revisit the above example of saving money for a trip or purchase there could be smaller steps taken out of that goal.

Short term goal setting is the best way to organize your life. Putting down on paper what it is you want and need to achieve, when it needs to be achieved by, and how you’re going to do it creates a road map for even the least motivated people. Of course there is still the element of action. If you’re not willing to do the work no amount of goal setting is going to help you achieve your dreams.  For those of us that are willing to do the work, but having troubles clearing our thoughts and deciding what needs to be done next goal setting will give you a blue print to work from.

In theory, perfectionism sounds like a good thing. After all, who doesn’t want to do a good if not “perfect” job at work… or even at play?

Indeed, it’s not a surprise if you have a tendency to be perfectionist at times. Ever since you were young, the drumbeat of perfectionism has been beating in rhythm to everything you do. Your parents and teachers probably told you, “Always do the best job you can.”

And now that you’re an adult, you can’t quite shake the feelings of guilt when you turn out something that’s not perfect. If it’s not perfect, then you probably didn’t do your best.

But here’s the thing: Sometimes we need to sacrifice quality just a little in order to gain the enormous advantages that speed brings us. This is especially true in business.

Think about it…

If you spend two months “perfecting” a product and then another month or so “perfecting” your sales process before you ever release the product, you’ll fritter away three or four months without making a dime. But if you release the product almost immediately and THEN work on improving it, you’ll actually make money the entire time!

Now maybe releasing a product first and improving it later doesn’t sound right to you. But just observe what big business does, and you’ll see they do exactly the same thing. For example, car makers roll out new cars quickly, and then later put stronger engines and better features in them. Software companies (like Microsoft) release software and then later fix the bugs with “patches” and upgrades.

And you know why they do it? Because getting products to market makes them rich. If you’re in business, you should be doing the same thing. Indeed, even your personal life can improve by finishing things fast and making improvements later.

Bottom line: People who are successful in business don’t necessarily strive to get it right the first time. Indeed, one of the biggest teachers is experience… and you can only gain experience when you stop being a perfectionist and start living life and running your business.

Incidentally, that also happens to be one of the quickest ways to getting rich, too. Ask a millionaire if his products and sales pieces are perfect, and I guarantee he’ll say no… at least not at first. But he’ll tell you that persistence and speed are far more important than perfection.

You have a big job looming over your head. Maybe you need to create an ebook on a topic that will require lots of research. Or perhaps this is a personal task you need to complete, like thoroughly clean an entire apartment so you can get your rental deposit back.

Either way, you get a slight feeling of panic washing over you every time you think of the task. You feel overwhelmed. It’s like this job is so big you might never finish it. And so you get paralyzed, not even sure where to start.

Sound familiar? Sure it does — we’ve all been there. And the next time you find yourself in that position, follow these quick and easy steps:

* Take action fast. The more time you spend thinking about a big job you have looming over your head, the greater chance you have of starting to feel overwhelmed, worried and even outright panicked.

The greatest way to stop fear in its tracks is to take action. That action starts by quickly following the next three steps – and then you need to actually start working on the project itself. The sooner you do, the better you’ll feel.

* Slice and dice the big job into small steps. Now it’s time to create a to-do list. But putting huge tasks on your list (like “write an ebook”) will only further serve to panic you.

Instead, break the big job up into little tasks. Some of your small bite-size tasks may only take ten minutes to complete, while others could take a few hours. Just don’t put anything on your list that takes more than half a day – if it does, break it into smaller pieces.

* Prioritize the list. Next, prioritize your list in order of importance. If you have a chronological task (where certain things needed to be completed first before moving on to the next task), this step is easy. If nothing seems particularly more important than another step, then put the tasks you least like at the top of your list.

* Cross off anything that doesn’t need to be done. Finally, cross off anything on your list that simply isn’t important. If it doesn’t need to get done, then it only serves to make you feel overwhelmed.

It’s true — a journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step. And the faster you take that first step, the faster you’ll completely your journeys. In short: Speed is the key when you want to boost your productivity!

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